A. I. Kolosov Stadium

The oldest working ground in Astrakhan sits in the Sovetsky district on Polzunova Street, opened in 1931 as a works stadium for the local ship-repair yard. Through the decades it carried the yard's own political weather in its name — first honouring Stalin, later Lenin — before passing into municipal hands in 1999 and taking the name it holds today, after Alexander Kolosov, a former president of the city's football club.

None of that history shows in the scale of the place. The pitch is artificial turf, and the ground holds fifteen hundred, category 3-A. That larger, much younger arena on Latysheva Street, home to Volgar with room for eighteen thousand and a Russian Cup final on its record, tends to draw the attention.

What Kolosov Stadium keeps is its age and its provenance — now serving as the home fixture venue for FC Astrakhan in the second tier's B division.